L'histoire de Graffigny-Chemin et ma famille Chevallier. The history of Graffingy-Chemin and my family Chevallier.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

meanwhile back in the colonies

George introduced me today to a new line of our family - the Whites.

"[Art,] I added a file here on some documents that I had received from a distant cousin in California awhile back on the White Family. This would be Daddy Mat's G-grandmother's line Mary White b1790- d 1883."

George included a link to a pdf file so that all of the correspondence and documentation on the Whites would be available. Thanks George.

So, who are these people?

The original White was William White, a minister from Wiltshire, England. He and his family were granted land in the colonies by Robert Beverly because, "they were hard workers and because they oposed the Colony's old ruling clique and fundalistic economy." (Comment of Stanley Williams, dated 1985). The use of the term fundalistic is a bit obscure at this point, but it may be that Beverly and White both opposed the idea of slavery as the basis for a new world economy.

This William White died in 1658, appointing his brother Reverend Jeremiah White as guardian to his children. Another brother, John White, vicar of Cheriton, Wilshire, England left a bequest to his brother William's children in a will dated 1668.

William married twice in his lifetime. By his first marriage, he had six children: John, William, Edward,Deborah, Mary, and Jeremiah. His wife's name is lost to time, or someone else will discover it. William's second wife was named Martha, widow of Major Thomas Brice. These two, William and Martha married in 1657, a year before both William and Martha died.

One of William's sons, who it is not clear, fathered John White who married Mary Elliot sometime before 1705. Mary Elliot was the daughter of Thomas Elliot (Ellet) of King William County, Virginia. John and Mary had at least six children: Daniel, Jeremiah, Henry, Thomas, James, and another John. (The birth order is uncertain as is the number of children.) John, Senior died by 1743.

Daniel, the son of John and Mary, died in 1790 in Culpepper, Virginia, but not before producing at least one offspring Henry White.

Henry married Celia Page(?) (whose father was John Page of Buckingham County, Virginia?) Henry and Celia had six or more children: Jacob (Cpt.), William, Thomas, James, Stephen, Obadiah, and possibly, Henry.

And who is Captain Jacob White? Jacob is a great great grandfather of our family and our connection to the American Revolution. Jacob was born in 1765 and married Hannah Spiers (between 1781 and 1786). Jacob and Hannah had a girl child, Mary White, who married a Pearson. The state of Virginia years ago started a project to preserve the history of the American Revolution and from them this photograph of the gravestone of our ancestor's gravestone is possible.

I will leave it to George or Kathy to tidy up the direct connection to James Madison Pearson.